While it has been a good concept and a nice read. I highly doubt we'll get to play Demon Hunters, seeing how their signature abilities (Immolation, metamorphosis) have been taken by warlocks. Then again, I could be wrong since Blizzard has succumbed to wants from the community after enough forum posts.

Assuming the Legion attacks Azeroth first I'd actually like to see the Demon Hunters start on Argus during the legions attacks. It could be an instanced version of the first zone where the Demon Hunters are there to sabotage the demons supply lines allowing the races of Azeroth to enter.

Best Demon Hunter class concept I've seen, good job. The only things I don't agree with are:

Let it be known that I am happy that the majority of posters only have a few issues with this concept. And considering the sheer number of DH class thread, this quote makes my day. Makes me feel like a job well done.

Deconstruction - I understand that you want your Demon Hunter to look like the traditional WC3 Demon Hunter, but I don't think Demon Hunters have to look like this. They can make bare-chested tier sets for the iconic Demon Hunter look.

Well Demon Hunters traditionally have had tattoos, and in the concept, Deconstruction would give you quite a few options on how you want your tattoos to look. The drawing I made is just one example. Other pictures from the OP has other examples that could be shown. Also, a player could just wear mail armor. Since the armor they would be getting from their starting quests would be exclusive anyway, I could imagine Blizzard giving them something fitting for Demon Hunters to wear. So in the end, Deconstruction is just a cool little option for players who want to get their RP on, want to be badasses without armor, or just like tattoos instead of armor.

Only Night Elves and Blood Elves can be Demon Hunters - I know that they aren't considered canon anymore, but the RPG books mention human Demon Hunters. I don't think it makes sense that only elves can be Demon Hunters.

Well Demon Hunters originated with Night Elves, and Illidan personally trained some Blood Elves, and some of those Blood Elves were extremely powerful Demon Hunters in their own right, so that gives us some basis for those two races. Those two races tend to be very fickle towards outsiders to begin with. We'd need to stretch the lore quite a bit to have other races involved. I could imagine a couple of non-elves becoming Demon Hunters, but not enough to justify additional races being added to their ranks. Supposedly there's human Shaman as well. However I NEVER want to see human shaman in this game.

Demon Hunters always struck me as being lone wolfs who aren't prone to sharing their secrets, and just want to kill demons or undead. The Demon Hunter is like that scary dude in your party who everyone is afraid of, but you bring him along anyway because he's so good at what he does. He's not like Mr. Miyagi who some twerp could tag along with and eventually he'll break down and teach you his awesome martial arts. A Demon Hunter would knock the kid out and disappear into the darkness.

Pandarens are more the Mr. Miyagi types IMO.

The Discipline spec - Don't get me wrong it's very well done, but I would replace it with a ranged tree so that Hunters won't be the only users of ranged weapons anymore. I would switch the fire-based DPS spec to a tank spec.

1. Its coming from Diablo 3, which is a completely different game in a completely different universe from WoW.
2. Having a class that can wield bows/guns/xbows, etc. called Demon Hunters could cause issues with the established hunter class.
3. There are better class ideas that could be used for that purpose. See my Ranger and Tinker class threads in my sig.

I feel that if Blizzard wants to better distribute bow/xbows/guns to other classes, they wouldn't use Demon Hunters to do it.

The spells and the Shadow Chain resource are awesome, made the Demon Hunter class much more interesting for me.

Thanks for your kind words and feedback. Always appreciated.

---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 03:37 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Sorrior

I see it this way.

I'm a battle mage nut they just suit me. And while ENH is one and DKs in sone ways. DKs feel to slow post Wrath(rune changes ruined the class to me) and ENH while nice lacks a nice battle mage esque tank. One reason i love monks they have a wii bit o battle mage to em.

So yeah a battle mage tank that is fast and quick would be badass.

Exactly how I feel. I love playing battle mage types in other games, and I just don't feel that DKs and Paladins fit the bill. Just way too much melee. Enhance actually has the reverse issue where there's too much cast spells and not enough melee. DHs should be right in the middle between melee and magic casting.

Oh an OP think you might ever come up with ideas for a 4th spec for classes?

While it has been a good concept and a nice read. I highly doubt we'll get to play Demon Hunters, seeing how their signature abilities (Immolation, metamorphosis) have been taken by warlocks. Then again, I could be wrong since Blizzard has succumbed to wants from the community after enough forum posts.

I felt the same way, until I realized how stupidly popular this class is, and how seemingly everyone wants to play as one. Blizzard has to be paying attention, and taking notes in the background. They didn't get to where they are today by ignoring the whims of their playerbase. Like I said earlier, this is like a lottery ticket that Blizzard can cash at any time to boost their subscription base. Could you imagine running an MMO on the decline and having the Burning Legion and Demon Hunters on the bench ready to go at anytime? It's pretty crazy when you think about it.

---------- Post added 2013-02-23 at 03:43 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Skorpionss

This is so cool that I'm afraid blizz won't pull it off right and I'll end up dissapointed ...

The tradition of the demon hunter arises from night elf history, and almost all demon hunters are night elves. A few blood elves make the pledge as well, seeking revenge for the destruction of their home. Other races can become demon hunters, but such individuals are unheard of. Any member of another race who is willing to make the sacrifices necessary to join the fight against the demonic invaders must find a night elf or blood elf demon hunter to assist him in the initiation ceremonies.[2]
To become a demon hunter, a hero must find a demon hunter who is willing to lead them through a series of complex rituals. These rituals involve capturing a demon and sacrificing it in order to bind a portion of its spirit inside the hero.[3] As part of the ceremony to become a demon hunter, the initiate burns out his or her eyes with a magic blade to entrap a demonic essence within their body. Most demon hunters then bind their mutilated eyes with strips of cloth. In return for this sacrifice, the demon hunter gains the ability to see the world without vision — creatures are visible as dimly glowing forms against a gray and murky background. Demonic energy blazes like burning pitch in the night; the demon hunter sees and recognizes it easily.[5]

Thank you much. I am really enjoying this concept. Hopefully this could be the nudge Blizz needs to reconsider it.

Originally Posted by Teriz

Wow, this is all sorts of awesome! I like the concept behind each tier, even if I disagree with some of the individual talents in each tier. I'll use it in a future update, and I'll be sure to give you credit for the original concept. Thanks for the contribution.

Awesome talent grid. Some definite great choices there reminiscent of the BC bosses.

Thanks Ed. The toughest part was tier 2 and tier 4. I knew I wanted a Movement tier, a Healing tier, a Metamorphosis tier, and a Crazy destructive tier, but those two were tough to cough up. Thanks for the initial spark. I appreciated it.

Is this not a stolen thread from years ago some guy did? besides official blizzard forums over there---->

No, not stolen at all. Plenty of people have made hypothetical class model threads here, and the well known one on this forum in the last year over demon hunters is mostly a silly hodgepodge of the ranged demon hunter of D3 inspired by Van Helsing with the WC3 demon hunter thrown in, which I never cared for one bit and wouldn't mind never seeing being bumped again. At least this one is trying to go more in the direction of a classic slayer/wardancer archetype, even if I feel the level of detail in the conjecture is not necessary it does the job of showing why a demon hunter is not necessarily redundant.

And this is a Warcraft FAN forum, where we talk about our enthusiasm for Warcraft and our ideas over Warcraft. This is hardly a plea to make Blizzard realize what could be done with a demon hunter, I think they are more than well aware of this sort of thing without us here to give them ideas.

While interesting, I don't think WoW needs another class with a tanking spec. Death Knight, Paladin, Monk, Warrior, Druid. We have 5 tanking classes available, and I don't see adding a 6th being viable. But... instead, just replace the tanking spec with a rogue type class. Have 2 melee DPS specs. The plate style, which would use a modified war glaive, almost like a staff with a blade at each end (almost like the double blade light saber in Star Wars). The other melee would dual wield and use stealth like the rogues and feral druids. And then the 3rd spec could be a ranged and/or heal class.

Cool ideas but this will never, ever happen. Deconstruction is way to difficult to actually implement in the game. Only 2 races would be the biggest rage of all time. Everything else might work though so who knows.

Not to give a short reply to a pretty lengthy article, but the idea of a hero class in this game at this time is, frankly, absurd. The playerbase cannot support the idea of one person having a character that is hands-down superior to another. Look what happened to the first hero class for any further use of an example you need.

Wish I could +1 topics though, I enjoyed *at least* the first post. Very well thought out.

Originally Posted by melodramocracy

Gold and the 'need' for it in-game is easily one of the most overblown mindsets in this community.

I haven't had time to do more than skim through the thread, but it looks like you did a pretty good job, except for some unrealistic expectations regarding race availability and equipment. Maybe a bit too close to rogues and monks, with the melee combo system and all.

From a lore standpoint, at least in the RPG, Warblades are technically any bladed weapon which has been imbued with demonic energy. If Demon Hunters are ever implemented in WoW, I fully expect that Warglaives will be given the same sort of treatment than Runeblades got in Wrath. Which is to say you'd probably get a castable "Demonic Warblade" weapon buff that has to be active to trigger most of your skills, and so any sword, axe, or polearm you equip technically becomes a Warblade.

Equippable tattoos is certainly viable, as the equipment slots are technically "chest," "shoulder," "wrist," and so on. However, I don't think Blizzard would go through such an extensive process to let a single class break down any piece of armor and turn it into another type of armor, with that type of armor being fully itemized for that class. From a practical point of view, shoulder and helmet are especially unlikely, as they aren't technically skins and are also the two pieces of equipment with the greatest level of detail and which take the longest time to for modelers to create.

Access to glaives, tattoos, hakama, and blindfolds would probably be easier accomplished through a class-exclusive vendor and transmogrification, similar to the way monks can obtain new belts and staves every ten levels. As a hero class, two complete sets of unique green and blue starting gear, plus a vendor with new glaive and blindfold designs every ten levels, plus unique Raid and PVP gear, would certainly be simple enough to implement.

If made a hero class, tattoos could also simply be integrated into the character customization process, similar to the way Death Knights have access to unique hair colors, faces, and decayed skin tones. More control over which pieces of armor you can show or hide might be possible to help accommodate this, and it's something that's been requested and discussed in the past.

In terms of race selection, it would probably be opened up to all or virtually all races. What little lore is available for DHs already indicates that any race can become a DH if they've got the proper alignment and someone to train them.

I felt that the deconstruction was the demon Hunters runeforging equivalent. And it really doesn't seen like it would be breaking the game too much it's just class specific transmog.

Also "hero class" is just a term for a room that starts at a higher level with semi decent gear and unique mechanics. It doesn't mean they are just super better than other classes. And please don't bring up DK opness, that was just blizz being gungho not a purposeful design element.